It's Complicated
Chapter 41: Chapter XLI
Previous Chapter Next ChapterLet's imagine something real quick.
Say you and two of your friends go out to meet with a group of executives from a different country to discuss a variety of things, including walks-of-life, ideals, political viewpoints, weapons, technology, and moral values. Unwittingly, one of your friends walks up to said group of executives and asks them in a blunt and crude manner of how did they manage to get their hair to look the way it does, why would they wear that outfit and not something a little more comfortable, or how many 'outings' they've had. Now let's add in the fact that these executives are also your employers.... yeah.
Well if this wasn't an awkward way for your friends to introduce themselves to your otherworldly employer, then I don't know what is. If I was back in the U.S., I'd get severely reprimanded and possibly demoted, even fired for something like this. But since our worlds are vastly different, it falls within reason that they would ask something like that.
But most employers with high influence tend to judge you on the company you keep. If you seem to have a group of friends who just don't give a damn and likes to have fun, they look down on that. But if you surround yourself with those you call 'acquaintances' whom you actually despise and want to shove into a industrial compactor, they'll nod in approval and send you along your way. They will think positive of you and disregard your rising blood pressure and take pride that you're well-set in misery, as misery does love a company.
Corporate office jokes... never again.
They intend for you to work past your usual hours, ignore your friends and family for a minor corporate gathering, shove your spouse away for them to get involved with several other men/women while they look for a reason to take half of your shit, push your children towards a strange person who would be designated their nanny and grow up to be socially-challenged druggies that wished for your death so that they can claim some money to take more of the drugs that they abuse, and they want you to work until you're in your twilight years where you finally retire, only for you to realize that you've missed out on what was truly important in comparison to that job that nearly killed you several times now.
So in a delusional state, you start to persuade yourself that the money was what you worked for all along and that was all that mattered, that the money you have now can buy your family and happiness back, despite the fact that they've already moved on without you. Yup, those kinds of people who allow themselves to shove all of their basic interaction with the ones they gave life to into someone else's hands are the type of people I vowed to never respect. Those of whom chose to work for the money and not for the mouths they feed are the ones that pisses me the fuck off. But I digress.
Corporate bosses tend to look at those happy employees with disdain if they should invite those with friends that cater to their personal tastes to a upscale social gathering. But if your tastes are as bland and colorless as theirs, you'd be just fine.
As for my current employers, well...
"...And that's how our manes have gotten to be the way they are now."
Okay... Now I'm angry with myself since I haven't asked this damn question myself. Guess that's one less thing crowded in the back of my mind when I see them. As Celestia finished her explanation, Blueblood yawned and stretched his hooves. "Yes, we get it. Now can we get back to the more interesting matters at hoof?"
"Blueblood's jealous because Twilight and I had our manes like that at least once in our lives." Cadance said with a sly grin, glancing back to the blond-haired prince. "Even Shining had his mane overflowing with magic, despite the fact that it was for a brief amount of time."
"I'd much rather not be overloaded with magic next time it happens." Twilight mumbled towards her brother, who nodded in agreement.
"I think that we should also obtain some information about the two of you." Luna suggested with an outstretched hoof towards Cliff. "Perhaps you would like to tell us about yourselves. We would be more than willing to know what the both of you are like."
"Yeah, tell them about yourselves." Sunset encouraged with a slight magical push into Cliff's back to get him to walk up to the lunar princess.
"Well... y'all already know my name. Just call me Cliff, I'm a cool person to be around, I don't really know everything about here, and I'm just here to help with the weapons thingy."
"The demonstration?" Blueblood questioned.
"He's the asshole of the group. Don't mind him." Shining assured.
"So, you guys are royalty?" Cliff asked as he approached the moon princess, unsure as to how to return her gesture. Instead of shaking, he settled for a casual fist bump, earning him an unimpressed look from her. "Y'all seem pretty chill for some rulers."
"Many of us are more than willing to show that, but it's a little hard when your guards and citizens place you on such a high pedestal." Celestia explained. "But if you'd wish, you may call us by our names when we're gathered like this, but only outside of the public eye."
"Why not in public?" Rickey asked.
"Remember the pedestal remark she made?" I began to explain. "Many ponies would take offense if you'd address them by an informal title... or they'd simply think that you and that certain individual were involved in some kind of way... Or they'd think that you and the figure you're addressing aren't on good terms."
"So they'd think you were some sort of disrespectful brat, or a hook-up?" Cliff asked while wondering why the princess' hoof remained extended.
"Handshake, Cliff. Treat it as you would-"
Luna cut me short. "I changed my mind, I wish to celebrate this momentous encounter with ear scratches."
...Did she just... "I-I don't think that's how it goes." Twilight said with a bit of nervousness. "You're supposed to get to know the human before asking for them to scratch your ears."
"So I cannot get what I desire from them as you would from Nondis?" Yeah, she went there.
"But that's only because he and I started dating! I never asked him to do anything like that until we started going out!"
"But Pinkie Pie would often brag about how his fingers would soothe even the most unreachable itches, and in such a way where they would tickle ever so slightly!"
"Trust me, they're overrated." Did Twilight just write me off like that? Okay, we'll see how overrated she think I am when I go for the wings.
"But even you said that his fingers was something that was to behold. We even took a visual sample of what they were capable of just this morning."
"Luna, human fingers aren't really that interesting of-OOOOOOOHHHH-hohohohooo..." As soon as my fingers went to work against the hidden crevices beneath her wings, she started to make a soft whinny while her right hind leg thumped against the ground in rapid succession. "Ohhhhhh, I love that."
Celestia and Cadance looked at her with amused smirks, almost as if they were going to laugh. Luna deadpanned directly at the purple alicorn as she used her magic to guide me further in. "Surely, they aren't that great for you to be so enthralled by his ministrations."
"He's doing the thing I like, to which I respond with a-aaaahhaaaa..." She melted even more as I added my other hand to the area behind her ears and scratched. "Please don't stop." She whined.
Luna then looked back to Cliff and Rickey with vested interest. "Perhaps a free hand would be so kind as to find it's way to my ears as well? I also take immense pleasure in belly rubs. Would you kindly indulge me with your fingers as well, please?"
Rickey walked up, not hesitating to scratch behind Luna's ears. Instantly, she rolled her eyes and nuzzled into his chest with a soft moan. Her hind leg proceeded to do the same thing as Twilight's. Rickey found amusement in the princess' reaction. "Aww, she's so cute. You've been dealing with this for nine months? This is a lot less shitty than having to deal with cranky-ass teachers on a bi-daily basis."
Cliff turned to Shining and slowly reached out his hand. The blue-haired stallion started to back away slowly. "No. Stop. Don't. I said stooo-ahhh..." But he eventually succumbed to the dark-skinned male who brushed his fingers lightly against the back of his ear. "Oh, Twily, I think you're on to something, kiddo."
"GUNS, PLEASE!" Cadance screamed to the top of her voice, stopping both Luna and Twilight from flipping over to expose their stomachs. The two princesses snapped out of their pleasure-induced trances and straightened back up. Meanwhile Shining was to invested in getting his ears scratched by Cliff.
"So... are there like human females that do this too?" The stallion asked.
"Yeah, probably more so. They'd probably scratch you behind the ears and around the body too. Girls are just that into horses."
"Cadie, can we visit-"
"NO!" She shouted to her husband. "Now, mister Cliff, could you please stop scratching my husbands ears?"
"Keep scratching, don't mind her." Shining ordered while leaning against the hand that lightly scraped the side of his ear. Meanwhile, Cadance continued to watch for another second before exploding.
"Dammit, stop scratching my husband! Only I'm allowed to rub his belly and bite his ears, and that's only when we're mating! That is his fetish that only I can exploit!"
...I... uh... okay?...
Cliff backed off of him in the fraction of a second, Shining was scrunched up in the face as he started to blush over what his wife had said. The two looked away from each other and remained silent for quite some time while Cadance stared angrily at Shining. Twilight facehoofed in hearing her brother's fetish, Luna shook her head with a questionable cringe, indicating a 'not bad' expression, and Blueblood started to snicker.
Both Cliff and Shining sighed heavily. "We'll never speak of this again?" Shining said quietly.
"What you talkin' bout?"
"Exactly."
After a few minutes of everyone getting to know each other, we finally got back on track to what we all had came here for. The royal ponies─with the exception of Shining Armor─all sat a short distance away from the demonstration table while Cliff, Rickey, and I started unloading both of the bins onto the large table. Shining was the only one who was close by, acting out of curiosity as he inspected the weapons. We also instructed him on how to install the bullets into the magazines, which he took an enormous amount of pride in doing. And thanks to his magic, we were done setting up quicker than what we had originally anticipated.
As of that moment, we had a whole line of assault weapons and ammo lined up for demonstration. The sniper rifle was waiting along the side of the table. The other tactical weapons, such as the crossbow, a compound bow and several arrows/bolts is what we wanted to focus on, as they would be a direct example of how human technology has improved. Alongside the TAC15 was the standard-issue Equestrian composite crossbow.
Shining picked up the wooden crossbow and loaded a bolt onto the shaft. He looked down the sights and aimed for the closest armored mannequin. Within a second, he held his breath and fired. The wooden bolt launched from the weapon, zipping through the air and landing against the chest-plate of the mannequin. The bolt, however, made contact with the metal, compressed under the force of impact and splintered into several pieces. A few more seconds later, Shining reloaded and fired another, yielding similar results. And on either hit, the mannequin shook but remained unphased.
"That suit of armor is one of our finest ever made." Shining stated. "We can take a variety of blows and keep on marching. Of course during the last demonstration, Nondis pointed out that there were a few gaps in the system, but those are protected against slashing weapons."
"Yeah, but there's more to it than being able to take a wooden dart that could explode provided that there's enough reactionary force." I argued while picking up one of the bolts he used. "The problem with your weaponry is that there's a massive kinetic force driving against a still object with an exorbitant amount of shielding, and there is a massive amount of energy being displaced when impact is made. So your wooden arrows would often be a one-time use in the heat of battle. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's why we changed to composition of the bolts to something a little less fragile."
Rickey continued from where I left off. "We pretty much upgraded the wood into a more durable material that could not only be lightweight, but it would also be a lot more capable of... driving the point home, so to speak. We have multiple kinds of arrows for different purposes. The ones we'll be using today is made of an aluminum alloy."
"Aluminum? But wouldn't that be a tad-bit costly to make?" Shining guessed.
"That's true, they are a dollar and some change more expensive than the standard fiberglass arrow." Rickey stated as he held one of the black arrows. "The idea is that with such a unyielding structure would allow the arrow a lot more breaching power. In other words..."
As he loaded the bolt onto the shaft of the TAC15, he looked through the scope and set his sights for the broad portion of the mannequin's chest. As soon as he pulled the trigger, the bolt soared across the field and found it's target. And as expected, the arrow continued to plow through the armor and didn't stop until the bolt was halfway buried. The impact was so powerful that the mannequin noticeably pivoted back before falling back into place.
"Your friend there wearing the armor, he's dead."
Shining blinked in amazement and stood silent for a few seconds before teleporting the besieged mannequin over to the table. As soon as it appeared, we all saw the back-half of the arrow sitting soundly in place, meanwhile the armor was punctured and the arrow protruding the back end of the lower neck. Cliff shook his head as he laughed.
"Damn, he a dead ass."
The other ponies approached the table and surveyed the damage themselves, gasping in shock and horror over what had happened to the inanimate guard. Twilight started jotting down notes while Cadance poked and prodded at the arrow in the victim's neck. "This is... terrifying." The pink princess said quietly. "This is what Shining Armor wears on a daily basis. And you just... ignored it. Disregard the armor he's wearing and just kill my husband, leave me a grieving widow."
Luna approached the black crossbow and inspected it. "A fearsome system in place, it looks as intimidating as it performs."
Rickey went on explain the crossbow's appearance. "The system of cables you see are hooked into those wheels, they run through a pulley system. I'm sure you guys have some knowledge on how it works with the displacement of weight. So the designers thought to themselves: if it could be used to move an object of significant weight with as little force as possible, why not apply it to one of mankind's oldest weapons? And not only that, but let's make the bow out of a heavy material with enough strength to produce a powerful draw without breaking the weapon. Hence why our bows are made of an aluminum-zinc compound instead of wood, to prevent breakage and promote higher levels of stress. There's a lot more specifics, but I'll just keep it simple for now. There are other weapons we want to show off before we head back."
After poking the arrow, Cadance groaned with disgust. "No thanks. I don't want my husband to be on the receiving end of this."
"If that's how you feel about the arrows. then you're gonna hate what we have left on the table." Cliff warned as he pointed to the array of weapons laid out. "We got handguns, shotguns, sub-machine, assault rifles, sniper rifles."
"That's a lot more than what you suggested the last time, isn't it?" Blueblood asked me.
"A shitload. I just brought enough for personal use last time. This is an arsenal made for a small army, and we got plenty more back at the castle."
"You didn't bring those?"
"That would be for the next demonstration, where we'll deal with things that go boom. Also we'll go over some self-defense items we'd use in daily situations."
"How much did you guys bring here?" Shining asked.
"A lot."
Our first series of demonstrations started out with handguns. And as expected, they did enough to please the ponies that beheld them. Of course, some of the rounds we shot bounced and grazed off of the armor plating, but the others that hit their targets head-on continued to place even more holes in the armor. But Cliff, Rickey and I grew impatient and started to move on towards the other weapons in the lineup. Unfortunately, it didn't stop Cadance from asking what the sniper rifle would do and if we could demonstrate it right away. So I decided that it would be the last thing on the list, considering that we would need to move a target some several yards out for us to demonstrate the results properly.
Actually, Rickey and I started to give Shining a few tips and pointers on gun safety while we were at it.
"And you never want to point the muzzle at anyone you know or yourself. Don't be 'That Guy' who picks one up and starts hollering out 'hey, look at me' while pointing it at someone's head." Rickey explained to the stallion.
"You could easily discharge the weapon and hurt someone you may know. There is a reason why we have classes for this kind of thing. Possessing a gun without training or knowing the proper protocols beforehand is like an untrained idiot grabbing a sharpened sword and swinging it at you." I also stated.
Shining nodded, indicating that he was absorbing some of the knowledge we were giving out. But before we went on to explain the other details about firearm safety, he proceeded to voice his concern. "I also heard there was a safety mechanism, can't that prevent any kind of accidental discharges?"
"Safety mechanisms are in place for children who just so happen to get a hold of these weapons while you're away, but that's never an initiative to just leave it on your kitchen counter. If you're going to have one in a home where you are with younger individuals, it is best to keep it locked in a safe or in a lockable case. Never leave these things out or you might find yourself having to deal with the authorities should your child decide to bring it to school for show-and-tell... or worse. It's also used for safe handling while you're carrying. You don't want to put this in your holster and shoot into your leg. The safety is there for that reason as well." Rickey explained as he picked up a sub-machine gun.
"Also, if you're using these for combat and you are with a group, be careful where you aim. If you strafe while holding the weapon up and looking through the sights, that is called sweeping. Never sweep past a friendly, you would put that individual in danger the moment that muzzle comes dancing past them." I added.
"But, isn't there a chance where you could shoot someone on accident?" Shining questioned.
Rickey took a quick breath before he answered his question. "I'm glad you asked that, because many individuals would find themselves caught off guard and shoot at anything that moves. Yes, that is a possibility, but there are also steps you could do take to prevent that from happening. This even goes for trained individuals as well, assess the situation before you think about raising that gun to eye-level. Don't be like some of our police officers and 'fear for your life' while unloading the full clip at someone's front door. You could kill a civilian acting that way. Warn the individual that you are going to shoot them prior to firing. And if you are firing at a suspect, do so with the intention to disarm. Never fire when their back is turned, always keep your finger off the trigger unless there is probable cause for engagement."
"And please note that 'probable cause' should not be based off of suspicion alone." Cliff strongly suggested. "Don't judge by appearances, don't act out of fear, don't shoot someone because you had a bad day. Take responsibility for your actions, think of the consequences, and most importantly do not shoot if there are other solutions present. If they are trying to kill you, that is probable cause. If someone walks out their front door with a wii remote and you start smokin' they ass on the front porch, that is not. And if you do fire on someone by accident, be man enough to admit that it was an accidental discharge by fault of the carrier."
"Okay. It seems there's a lot of responsibility that comes with carrying something so... small." Shining said as he looked at the handguns we had finished firing.
"Those three pounds seem a little heavier than usual once you realize that that small amount of weight could end a life so quickly." I stated while thinking of the one that I'd normally carry. "It's no different from carrying a sword. Both can be perfectly safe in the hands of those who act smart and remain responsible."
Shining nodded quietly as he watched Rickey walk up to the table with the gun he picked up just earlier. "I understand. So what about that?" He pointed out.
Rickey unplugged his ears as he turned back to me and Shining. Shining asked his question once more for him to answer. "This is an SMG, or a submachine gun. More specifically, the model of this one is called the Heckler & Koch MP5. The stock, the part you rest against your shoulder, is expandable to meet the demands of the user. Often, this weapon is used by special task forces because of it's maneuverability, size, and often for stealth. Most of the time, you would place a suppressor at the end of the barrel while using subsonic ammunition for the purposes of eliminating unarmored targets as quietly as possible. It is the ultimate way of eliminating your target quickly, discreetly, and without incident. They often prevent what we'd like to call over-penetration, meaning that they don't run through your target and accidentally hit something else. For example: when dealing with a hostage situation, you don't shoot the bad guy and accidentally hit the hostage behind him."
"That's understandable." Shining stated. "Has there been any cases of a hostage situation where you've needed something like that?"
I walked up to the table and looked at a Beretta that looked similar to the one I once owned. "Last week on the train to Canterlot, your dad was about to get eighty-six'd for standing up for another father protecting his family. They were going to wipe him out and toss him off the train, to which I responded with hollow-point rounds. The rest from there you can figure out."
As I recalled that moment, I had noticed a bit of discomfort settling on not only Shining's face, but on Twilight's as well. I guess I pulled out too personal of an example without thinking. In the end, I felt somewhat remorseful for saying it. I guess I let my pride precede discretion.
"Yeah, kinda like that." Rickey said. "But this time, we're dealing with weapons that fire at a rate of eight hundred rounds per minute. In other words, your enemies would be good and dead going against this without proper protection. As a standard, each one of these comes with three modes: safe, semi-auto, and full-auto. Semi is one shot per trigger pull, it's great for trying to fire in a controlled environment, or a closed area. But horrible for fighting in a firefight. You could be yanking that trigger back all day and your poor index finger could need some ice by the end of the fight. That's where the second mode kicks in. Full-auto is for any tactical situation where you would need to suppress your enemy and take them down quickly. This mode is preferred in more open areas where there is ample space."
Rickey first set the weapon from safe to semi-auto and lined it against his shoulder as he looked downrange. He lined his sights for the unarmored mannequin. As he pulled the trigger, a loud pop sounded as the gun tossed a small shell from the chamber. The mannequin he hit jiggled a bit before stopping in place. As he lowered the weapon, he jiggled his right ear a bit.
"Fuck!" He shouted as he rubbed his ear and placed back in the ear plug. "Also, keep your ears covered. These things are loud as hell when they're right next to your head."
I shook my head as Rick realized he made the mistake of not wearing his while Shining tried his best to hold back a chuckle. Rickey continued with the demonstration.
"Moving on, we're going to fire the rest of whatever's in this mag. I just fired one, so we've got about twenty nine left."
After setting the MP5 to full auto, he lined his sights to the mannequin downrange and unloaded the full clip. A rapid succession of pops sounded throughout the field as more nine millimeter shells came flying out and littering the ground below us. The mannequin was receiving a series of hits, but the majority of rounds landed either around or behind it. After he was finished, he released the magazine from the gun and placed it on the table.
"As you saw, there was a bit of recoil from each shot that kinda threw me off sight. So not every bullet is going to hit if you just dump everything from the cartridge at once. You'd need to fire in bursts so that you'd give yourself enough time to realign yourself to your target. You can fire this from the hip, but you would better off praying before spraying."
"They call that 'spray-and-pray' on our world." Cliff summarized. "It's for the guys who don't aim and fire all over the place. At that point, one of those bullets might as well be a prayer to God. So it's a slim chance that you'll hit something like that. You'd probably get hit first before you even hit the side of a skyscraper."
Shining was busy taking in the knowledge while everyone else who watch were asking questions. Twilight teleported the unfortunate victim to the side of the table for a survey. As we looked at the wounds incurred by the MP5, Rick had pointed out a few that landed on the neck, some that hit the chest, one that hit just above the eye-socket, and one more that hit the left foreleg. As he pointed them out, I told him which was instant and which were lethal due to bleed-out.
But out of a total of thirty, only seven hit their target.
"The accuracy is much to be desired." Luna proclaimed as she examined the entrance wounds.
"Again, that's the result of dumping the whole clip at once." I argued in place of Rickey, who was busy at the table. "Your sights get thrown off if you don't fire in controlled bursts. If you feel like shooting up the whole room, that would be ideal. But you would get a lot more bang for your buck if you fire out your shots."
"Oh, say can you see!" Rick exclaimed as he picked up a larger weapon. As everyone turned to him, we all saw as he gently kissed the side of an M16. "This is one of my favorites."
"Why don't you tell 'em what it is, Cassanova kissin' ass." Cliff joked while Rick eagerly patted the side of the rifle.
"This here is a Colt M16A4, made in the good-ol U.S. of A. This belongs to a class of weapons called the assault rifle. If you see someone coming to your doorstep with one of these, then you know that you're getting the boot. This particular model has three functions: safe mode, semi, and burst."
I continued to add to his explanation. "Remember when I said that if you dump everything out at once, it reduces your accuracy? This is that realization come to fruition. It doesn't fire everything at once, but it does launch a controlled three-shot burst. This is more efficient for when you're dealing with real-time combat situations, especially when you're dealing with a stubborn group of assholes. If the changelings want to keep shooting magic at you, respond with this. Three shots and you know they're out of commission."
"This gun is standard issue of the United States military, so what you're seeing is exactly what the boys use back home." Rick carried on. "Furthermore, this packs a lot of punch, capable of housing ammunition that could plow through drywall, wood, thin sheets of metal, and sometimes car doors. Even if you're armored in that clunk of tin metal, you're pretty much nothing more than canned meat. That armor was made for swords in mind, not an offensive juggernaut capable of ripping you to pieces and swissing your shit."
"Plate armor is practically useless against this." I stated as I grabbed the rifle from Rickey and loaded myself. "You'd be better off sitting behind a wall of sandbags over trying to hide behind a corner. This shit will chip at stone, break bricks, and still find a way to tag you."
Although he was mesmerized at the information we kept feeding him, Shining also took notice of the small scope sitting at the very top of the rifle. "So... what's the purpose of that? Is it like the scope you had on the crossbow?"
"Not really. This is an Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, ACOG for short. It magnifies your sights from one-point-five times up to about six times. You use this for when you gotta deal with targets down the way. You're pretty much picking guys off from a safer distance. And not only that, I can actually use this at night. There's a built-in phosphor that highlights your reticles so you can lock on to your sights better."
"Yeesh, so you can hunt down changelings in the dead of night too?" Cadance questioned with a cringe. "It make me scared of what that thing can do."
"In speaking of which..." I quickly made my way to the table and made sure that there was no one in front. After setting the rifle from safe to semi. Looking down my sights, I had gotten ready to fire... but not before Cliff had tapped on my shoulder, indicating that I was seconds away from making the same goof Rickey made. After plugging my ears, I looked through the sight and aimed for the next armored mannequin out on the field. After I aimed for the center chestplate, I fired five rounds into it, causing the mannequin to pivot from the force. After I finished, I could see that there was a small grouping of three and two other holes in the armor.
"Damn, that bitch gone." Cliff muttered as Shining eagerly teleported the mannequin over to the side of the table. It didn't take him much investigation to see that this guy was good and 'dead'.
"Mother Faust... Our guys wears this." He whispered before bursting out into a depressed laugh. "Wow, this is gruesome."
The other ponies took a look for themselves, also taking a mental picture of the scenario playing out in an actual battle. Blueblood began to shiver as he pulled the armor off and saw the tiny bits of armor acting as shrapnel inside of the rather deep wounds. "If this was hide and bone, this stallion would be taking a major bleeding. He would be done for."
Cadance squirmed as she poked her hoof at the entry wounds. "You wouldn't even see this guy breathe once after this. One of these goes into the heart, one into the lungs, and I guess this cluster here would bore through his sternum, hitting both the aorta and the superior vena cava. Even if you were to miss the heart, this guy would be bleeding out in seconds. Ugh... and the bones would be shattered to bits, so that would make the wound even worse."
"If this guy wasn't wearing the armor, you'd be seeing exit wounds." Rickey added, causing the pink princess much more disgust.
"And this can strike past walls?" Luna inquired with a cringe.
"If it's made out of standard building materials and nothing reinforced or completely solid, yes."
"That's really horrible." Twilight mumbled while digging through the wounds with her magic to retrieve the bullets. "And they aren't easy to remove, either."
"And as a plus, if you find yourself in a close-quarter situation, you can use this to parry off an attack and attack with the butt of the stock. It's pretty damn durable, and good enough to use for a quick bludgeoning to disorient your foe before executing them at point-blank range. This thing was built for war, all aspects of it." I added. "Plus you can even attach bayonets to the end of the muzzle for more melee damage."
"That's it, demonstration over!" Blueblood blurted out. "This thing is more than capable of mowing down a few changelings."
"But he hasn't even set it in the other mode yet!" Rickey argued while I was setting my sights for the next armored mannequin downrange. This was was a bit further away so I had to be careful when firing. After confirming that there was nothing to interfere with my shot and there was no moving bodies, I set the rifle to burst and pulled the trigger. In rapid succession, three shells came flying out of the chamber. As I continued to fire downrange, I could already see the mannequin tilting with every shot. Eventually, it fell down without me emptying the chamber or the clip.
"Target neutralized!" I said loudly while Twilight was a little reluctant to teleport that one to the side of the table.
"This one's even worse." She pointed out, looking at the several holes in the armor.
"My boys and I wear this." Shining continued to chant with disbelief.
"It is obvious that this demonstration has showed us some rather powerful equipment." Celestia proclaimed. "I could not imagine what would become of a changeling drone should it come into contact with you humans. This thing has more holes than Queen Chrysalis herself."
"And that's a lot of holes." Cadance cosigned with a nod.
Sunset walked up to the mannequin and shook her head. "Such is the wrath of an assault rifle. But I thought that many of these weapons would run at full-auto."
"Some have been made like that. This is a later model." I said as I detached the clip and pulled back the charging handle to empty the chamber of a spare bullet. "And the best thing about this rifle is that you can customize it however you need to. If you want laser sights instead of ACOG, or add a grenade launcher to it, it's practically easy. And in case you're wondering, there is some non-lethal ammunition you could use for crowd suppression or criminal apprehension."
Rickey patted me on the back as he spoke. "All of that is inside of one of the orange bins back at the castle. That'll be for a 'part two' if there is one."
"That's up to them. I just came here with the intention of showing them how powerful our weapons are. In speaking of which, we haven't did the other assault rifles or even the shotguns yet."
"And I'm afraid that we would soon overextend our allotted time frame." Celestia said while looking towards the sun. "In a bit, I would have to head back to Canterlot and lower the sun."
"Lower the sun?" Cliff asked.
Twilight walked up to the dark-skinned male. "Oh right, we never really told you that part. With our titles, we pretty much represent a different attribute of Equestrian life. I represent friendship, Cadance represents love, Celestia represents the day and the sun, while Luna represents the night and the moon."
"Huh, what about those two?" Rickey asked while pointing to both of the white stallions.
"I guess Blueblood is the one who heads negotiations and politics, Shining... well... he kinda married into it, so I guess..."
While Twilight was trying to be nice, I decided to be blunt with her older brother's status. "Ahem, CONSORT! *cough-cough*" I joked, earning a displeased expression from the blue-maned prince.
"Hey pot, name's kettle. We've met before." Shining said to me with a bemused tone.
"Well... actually, he's not there yet." Cadance corrected her husband. "He'd have to marry Twilight before you can use that excuse."
"Yup, so I'm still technically a free man." I boasted.
"Correction, you WERE a free man." Cadance stated with a scowl. "And I do intend to remind you who you belong to and whom's wedding I will be presiding over." She was really gunning for me and her to get hitched, she's like that obsessive mother who's worried that her daughter would never marry at a decent age.
"Wow... Ol' girl said she got you on lockdown." Cliff said with a chuckle. "She cuffed yo ass."
"Well to his defense, he does have a right to sow his seed prior to the marriage." Blueblood rebutted. "It's an option that everypony who's marrying into the royal family has. I'm more surprised he hasn't exercised that right."
Actually, I did... with the pony I was engaged to... which was illegal. But Shining doesn't have to know that.
"That's because I asked that he would omit himself from that practice." Twilight snarled back at Blueblood. "So if you don't mind me saying, stick with your seven other wives before getting into the subject of my relationship with my fiance!" Oh boy, she's going sub-nuclear. That escalated rather quickly.
I wanted to remind Twilight that we were on break, but Shining's still around. I would eventually have to explain to him the reason why we had to split up for a bit, and then I'd have to explain the reason why we had a fight, and then I'd have to tell him that his younger sister had broken the rules of engagement, thus getting her wings clipped.
I'm sure Shining would be quick to learn how a gun works then.
Yup, time to change back to the original subject. "Okay, you two. We're not here to fuss and fight over our moral outlooks. We're here to shoot mannequins." I said as I placed the M16 back on the table and looked towards the shotgun. "Hey Princess Celestia, how long did you say you had?"
"I want to say another hour." She said, observing the sun's position in the sky.
"Okay, I got time for a few more demonstrations and some additional questions. Let's get this show on the road." I sure hope that Twilight was throwing a bluff while getting all defensive like that.
I cautiously observed the field ahead to see if there was no movement. When I had confirmed that the area was clear, I proceeded to pick up a few shells from a box to load seven into the shotgun I brought here, but I hesitated to do so in order to explain the weapon and what it does. "This here is a Remington 870, it's a more modernized version built for tactical purposes. Of course it's has the hand-pump action for reloading the chamber, complete with an intake of about six rounds. If you are a smart individual, you'd best find some solid cover because this here has a habit of mowing down whatever's in front of it."
*chick-chick*
Gotta love that sound. After one solid pump of the empty gun, I put on my thickest Texan accent while I went into detail. "You see here, this is the upgraded version of what gramgram and gramps would have while rockin' in their chair on the front porch, chasin' off whatever varmits come scamperin' through. Or if there were some dumb boy runnin' up the driveway at the middle of the night, tryin' to find his way back to his car after rompin' around with your little girl, that dumb son-of-a-bitch would be findin' his way to an alter with one of these buried in his back, I'll tell ya what."
"What happens if he says no?" Sunset questioned while snickering at my heavily-exaggerated accent.
"Well that boy might find himself at the mercy of the man or woman holdin' this thing at the back of his britches. He could be marchin' on down to the station for trespassin' or to a hospital for gettin' some fixin' up. Might not kill ya, but we would probably remove an arm or somethin'. But hoo-wee, this thing punches like somethin' fierce."
"Hey, let me get in on this." Cliff asked as he walked up to the table.
I bowed a bit and gave him the shotgun while he began to go into detail. "This thing brings it to your front door. There is a reason why whoever's in a tactical team with this weapon in hand would be front and center. This kind of weapon is used for breaching doors, blasting off doorknobs, and widespread massacre. Basically, this thing is not like the others. Like if you could look down the barrel of all of these guns─not saying you should─but if you did, you would see that every single one of those have rifling, identified by a bit of threading that corkscrews on down, kinda like your horns do. This does not."
"I don't see the reason why you wouldn't have something like that, considering that many of the other weapons have performed beyond expectations." Luna said with skepticism. "Perhaps there is an explanation for these 'threadings' in the weapons."
"Basically, the threading is there for the bullet. Think of it as a spiral. If you were to put a spiral with a hand-crank against the dirt, what will it do?"
"Well I suppose it would begin to drill into the ground." Cadance answered.
"Well that's the purpose. If you put enough spin to something in motion, it travels much further and stays in a straight line for a lot longer. Not only that, but there's still the drill aspect of it. If you fired a bullet from one of those other guns, guess what it will do?"
Shining placed a hoof to his chin as he pondered the process. "That explains it. That's how it passes through our armor so effortlessly."
"Exactly!" Cliff shouted with excitement. "Those other guns are built to have their bullets DRILL into you. Plain and simple. But here's where the game changes up on you: the shotgun doesn't have all of that. So the range is reduced, there isn't really a spin to keep it aligned, BUT there is a lot of these little shrapnel pellets built into the ammo."
Odd way of putting it. "Twilight, do you remember how Pinkie's party cannon works?" I asked.
"Of course. Is it the same principal of how the items are unguided and everything inside goes everywhere when launched?"
Cliff pointed to her and nodded. "I like her, she smart as fuck. Basically, this is a shrunk-down cannon that you carry with you everywhere. And being that it's a cannon, it's going to pack a lot of punch to get it's load out. And that means that it is going to kick right back at you. So in reality, this thing shoots at whatever's in front of it, but at a wider range due to the unguided shrapnel being directed out of the barrel at such a high rate. It's going to spread out the further it goes. So as long as you within twenty-some-odd yards, this thing will be taking all sorts of avenues in order to put yo ass into the ground."
"The only severe disadvantage to one of these is that it's not very effective past a certain range for penetrating armor." I explained. "And due to the lack of mass, it's severely unlikely for something like this to penetrate plate armor as thick as the ones your guys are wearing. So you'd be fine if you were wearing some real armor, and not that light stuff the Equestrian Specialists wears. Because if you were wearing something like that, expect for a sizable chunk of your chest to be removed, and don't be too surprised if you can see light pass through."
"That's a scary thought." murmured Blueblood.
"Yeah, it is." Cliff agreed while he took the shells I was going to load into the shotgun earlier. After placing six in the magazine, he removed the safety and cocked the shotgun to load the chamber. As he placed on one of his earplugs, he pointed to the unscathed, unarmed mannequin. "Take this guy for example, he's not that far off from us. He's as close as I would need him to be for me to make an example out of him. So... SAFETY OFF!"
As everyone stood well behind the firing line, Cliff quickly placed the other plug into his ear. He raised the shotgun to his right shoulder and looked down the sights towards the unarmored mannequin. With a single trigger pull, he buried several small beads of buckshot into the chest of the mannequin. The mannequin tilted back as the impact forced it back an inch. Cliff fired another round at the unfortunate victim, causing for even more holes to be buried into it's chest and neck. Cliff continued to fire every round until there was nothing left but smoke coming from the ports. The barrel chugged out smoke as if it was a small chimney while Cliff blew at it.
Twilight teleported the mannequin over, only to gag at the carnage. "Augh! That's bad."
Rickey continued to look downrange as he noticed that there was an armored mannequin sitting next to it. As he squinted, he tried to see if there was any damage to it as well. "Hey Twilight, can you zap that one over here too?"
"But Cliff wasn't aiming for it. He couldn't have hit that one."
"Yeah he did."
While everyone else was inspecting the mannequin with a massive crater in it's chest, Twilight proceeded to transfer the last armored mannequin over. When she got it over, she could immediately see the small scrapes and entry wounds on it's face. "Oh my gosh. He got him."
"What, no way!" Shining hollered as he galloped over to see the indentures in the mannequin's face where the armor didn't protect him.
Cadance came over to inspect the wounds of this mannequin while she and the others had already specified that the first was definitely a kill. "Okay, so this one pretty much got a few lacerations. This one at the eye socket, that would cause blindness. This one that went into the cheek, that would be a wound he'll recover from. This one a the front his neck is a straight shot to the carotid artery, it'll be slow but he'll bleed to death in a minute or two. So, yeah, this guy is a kill too."
"Oh, well that's moderately haunting." Luna whispered to her older sister, who only looked on with stunned silence.
"Yeah, so this goes without saying that this will bring it to your front door." Cliff boasted. "Don't even try to get in front of something like this unless you want to die."
As Cliff placed the gun back on the table, I went to the very end of the table and picked up the largest one laying against the side. "Twilight, can you move that last armored guy on across the lake below that mountain?"
"WHAT!?" She screamed loudly. "Are you crazy? That's way too far for even my magic to hit it! You'd be insane to try and put something so out of range. You're talking about at least eight hundred yards!"
I lifted up the Barrett and started looking through the scope. "Exactly."
Immediately, Cadance started bouncing up and down with glee as she ran towards me. "IT'S ABOUT TIME! SHOW ME WHAT THAT THING CAN DO!"
She shouted that so loudly, her voice came with a force that caused wind to blow my hair back. And for a spit second, I could have sworn I heard a loud rumbling noise while I was nearly blown off my feet. Her voice echoed throughout the area, even reaching as far as the mountains in front of us and bouncing back. Everyone continued to stare at her while I cringed at the present ringing in my ears. Both Shining and Twilight facehoofed while Blueblood and Luna shook their heads. Celestia was just as surprised as I was. Cliff and Rickey were staring with their jaws ajar.
She whispered with a growing blush. "Heh heh... *ahem* ...sorry about that minor outburst. You may continue when ready."
I gave myself a few seconds to rub my ears and get the ringing to stop before carrying on. "Yeah, please let me know when you decide to go caps-lock on me again. I have a feeling that I should have to be prepared for next time."
"Try dealing with that all honeymoon." Shining mumbled to Blueblood, earning him a laugh from not only the blond prince, but also Cliff and Rickey.
"I was doing that to you because you never lasted more than two minutes." Cadance shot back, causing me to walk off for a bit.
Damn, Cadie. I didn't know you were gonna be hosting a burn clinic. Ouch.
Meanwhile, Cliff started singing while laughing. ♪"Take me to the King. I don't have much to bring."♫
"Shut up, Cliff!" I screamed while I was trying to recover from my own laughter.
Luna failed to withhold herself as she exploded in raucous laughter. Celestia groaned with disappointment, all while trying to hide her smile. Twilight was too busy turning red from the embarrassment of hearing about her brother's marital performance issues. In turn, she grabbed the mannequin and quietly disappeared to the other side of the lake.
Blueblood snickered while holding on to the bemused stallion. "You know, there are ways to get around tha-"
Shining quietly picked up a handgun and pointed it towards Blueblood. "Do you really wanna keep speaking?"
Blueblood quickly learned how to silence himself as he backed away. "Oh no, I'm fine."
As soon as Twilight popped back up, she made it quite clear that she was finished with her task. "Okay, the mannequin's across the lake. Now please load that thing and fire it before I get anymore embarrassed! And Shining Francine Armor Sparkle, put that thing down!"
With his head hung in shame, Shining returned the gun back to the table while I was snickering away to retrieve the clip. "Heh, Francine."
Loading the clip into the sniper rifle, I began to feel just as excited as Cadance. This was going to be my first time shooting something like this. After plugging my ears, I began to look through the scope, trying my best to see where Twilight had placed the mannequin. After a minute of searching, I had finally found where Twilight had placed the armored mannequin. However the sights were a bit fuzzy, I couldn't make much out except for the golden armor standing out against the much green and gray canvas behind it. After adjusting the zoom a bit, I had gotten a clearer view of the target. But it seemed like there was much more to it. As I was breathing, my sights continued to move. I held my breath and concentrated on the chestplate. Without hesitation, I tensed my finger around the trigger and squeezed.
*BAAAANNNGGG!*
A miniature shockwave left the barrel as the bullet escaped from it. A small plume of smoke exited from several directions at the end of the muzzle. Behind me, everyone screamed with the exception of Rickey. As I had continued to look through the sights, I saw something that didn't exactly line up correctly. While I had aimed for the chestplate, I ended up landing my shot directly at the neck, completely decapitating the mannequin. Now I understand that these mannequins aren't the best representative for bodies being that they're so brittle, but this still provide some context as to what the results would be, especially considering that ponies were smaller than humans.
And even with that context, this will still take someone's head off.
"Holy shit... that was not supposed to go there." I whispered as I watched the headless victim fall back onto the ground. I got out of the scope and looked to it's side, noticing another knob that had an incline symbol on it. I think I might have gotten the elevation of the sights a little too low, thus causing me to aim for the neck rather than the chest. Either way, there wasn't much of the mannequin's head left, so it was a confirmed kill.
Note to self: Sniper rifles are a little more complex than the others in the marksmanship department.
"That thing is LOUD." Twilight whispered to her older brother.
"It almost sounded like a lightening bolt struck just five yards away. I couldn't tell the difference." Shining responded.
"Yeah but here's the difference," Rickey began. "Lightening has a few signs in telling you that it's gonna strike, this does not. You can see and hear a lightening storm when it approaches. The sniper rifle is a totally different story. If you hear it once, there might be a good chance that either you or one of your guys would be on the receiving end of that monster slug. And if you think the shotgun or the assault rifle was scary, then you don't know what it's like being on the other side of that lake, desperately trying to find out what's plucking your guys off. And while you're trying to find us, we know where you are, we can see you pissing your pants, we can continue to knock each and every one of you off from this distance while you're too busy trying to take cover behind a crate or a thin concrete wall. We'll still find you, and pick you off through that wall. And the worst of it all is this: it can go a lot further than eight hundred yards."
"How far can it go?" Cadance questioned.
"Do you want maximum effective range or just the range where you can see someone?"
"Just lay it all out there." Shining said while looking at the other side of the lake.
Rickey looked to Cliff, who was scratching his dreads. "You want this one?"
"Sure." Cliff shrugged as he provided the answer. "If you want max, then you're looking at approximately 1,969 yards, or roughly one-point-twelve miles."
"I-I'm so terribly sorry, w-what was that number again?" Celestia inquired, still in disbelief of the range. To be honest, I even thought that number was a total ass-pull.
"Eighteen-hundred meters in metric measurements. One-point-eight kilometers. Almost six-thousand feet in standard measurement."
"Cliff, I think they understand." I said while gawking at the numbers and thinking just how far I could fire this thing. I could be in a tree somewhere almost a mile off and picking off changelings like it's nothing. And just thinking about being on the receiving end of this already makes me want to curl up into a ball. I guess my research on this gun was very much insignificant. Still in a state of disbelief, I looked through the scope and looked at the 'dead' soldier. "There's no fucking way."
Suddenly, I heard a quick clopping sound directly behind me, almost as someone was getting closer. "Did you hit it?" Cadance asked while looking over my shoulder.
"I missed what I was aiming for." I answered softly. "But I hit him alright."
"What were you aiming for?"
"Dead center in the chest."
"Well what did you hit?"
"You wanna zap it over here and find out? It's not exactly for the faint of heart."
"Give me a second." Cadance said as she opened her wings and darted across to the mannequin. As she did, I turned the safety on and continued to look through the sights, looking for her reaction. The moment she landed, it appeared she gasped and continued to look further back. For a second she walked away from the mannequin and stood silently staring at something even further behind it. After a minute or two, she grabbed the remnants of the mannequin and flew it back over. As she landed, she stared blankly at the sniper rifle, not with a smile or a frown, but with a sort of absence.
"Honey." Shining said as he approached his wife. "Are you okay?"
As she stepped aside, she revealed the decapitated mannequin, causing everyone else to gasp loudly. Cadance didn't even look to her husband as she continued to stare at the sniper rifle. "Sweetie... I don't ever want you to find yourself in the line of this thing, okay?"
Shining gulped as he approached the macabre sight, seeing that the head was clearly blown off from the neck. "Noted."
Twilight proceeded to observe the wound while Blueblood stood even further away from it. The purple princess looked back at me with a mortified expression. "The moment it hit..."
Luna walked up to the weapon and spoke. "This thing, this is a harbinger of one's demise. It is a cruel way of ending one's life."
"That is the psychological edge this thing has." Rickey explained. "It doesn't intend for you to be honorable, it intends for you to eliminate your target no matter the distance. You could be thirty yards away or even a full mile, it sends you to a permanent sleep. If one is really precise, it could blow off some of your limbs. This was built for nothing but intimidation, that and the complete decimation of one's forces, with surgical precision."
Celestia took a deep breath as she slowly turned to me. "I see that you have made your point apparently clear, sir captain. These weapons are most impressive, and quite intimidating."
"Intimidating is scratching the surface." Spoke a still-shocked Cadance. "That thing just took the guys head off and kept going, heaving up dirt and breaking rocks along the way. Granted, the ammo didn't survive." She then pulled out the round I had shot and placed it on the table. The whole group wrapped around to see the cracked copper bullet warped out of it's original shape.
"So is it safe to say that the changelings don't stand a prayer?" Blueblood mused.
"These things are really going to provide us with an unfair advantage. I'd say we take that chance." Shining stated.
"Is there any intention to distribute?" Cadance asked.
I shook my head. "No, I plan on keeping these to myself. These are human weapons, built by humans for human warfare. I don't intend to let the politicians here get any ideas, hence why I've vouched against having any media or press."
"That doesn't mean that they've stopped following." Cliff pointed out. "Just think of the paparazzi, they don't care about your personal dilemmas or your privacy. They just want that inside scoop for that quick money."
"Hence why we're on private property." Twilight argued. "If there isn't an open media day on the farm, then nopony would be willing to get sued or charged."
"Doesn't stop the fact that our little demonstration hasn't gotten any attention on it's own." Rick added. "Both Cliff and I are still going to have to hide our asses on the way out."
"We'll take care of the both of you once we get back to the barn." Shining suggested. "From then on, we carry out the equipment from there."
Twilight tapped me on the back of the leg to get my attention. As I turned to her, she motioned for me to lean downwards. When I did, she responded by climbing on my back and whispering in my ear. "I had to stay up from three in the morning to now just to get you connected with your friends, I helped carry your stuff, I also cast an invisibility spell lasting for well over an hour, I even kept teleporting things from one side of the farm to the other. Could you do me a little favor instead?"
"Carry you?" I deadpanned.
"I'll love you forever." She whispered as she slumped over on me, causing me to take on all of her weight.
I rolled my eyes and stood on my own feet while she continued to anchor herself onto my shoulders. "You're such a massive guilt trip."
"I know."
"And a big baby."
"Shut it."
After cleaning up our mess and getting everything back on the wagon, Shining had took on the task of pulling the wagon full of weapons towards the castle. On the way towards the barn, Cliff and Rickey continued to speak with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, answering many of the questions that I couldn't really answer. It's not that I didn't have the answer to them, but it was more of me being preoccupied with something else.
*SNOOOOOOORE*
Yup, right in the ear.
While I continued to hang on to the exhausted princess, I could hear a multitude of conversations taking place behind me. Some were asking questions about humans in general, others were about the weapons. But there was one conversation that stood out above the rest, with was the one taking place directly behind me.
"Don't they look made for each other? I can't wait till they finally jump the broom. I can already see us planning everything for the wedding, just like Twilight did for us."
"Meh, let them do what they want." Shining Armor took notice of me carrying his little sister and looked away, gaining attention from Cadance.
"Aww, you're jealous."
"Nothing is more annoying than a public display of affection." He answered callously.
"You're one to talk, Mi Amore Shining Armour."
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" He said before his wife nuzzled him.
"And you'll keep telling me that until you draw your last breath. I don't wanna stop hearing you complain." She answered playfully.
"Sweetie, we're in front of the others."
"Dearest, I don't give a damn."
With a bit of reluctance, Shining mumbled to his wife. "As much as I don't wanna admit it, my role as her Big Brother Best Friend Forever, is coming to an end. She's growing past me now, she's even a little taller than me too. But seeing her on him like she used to ride on my back, it kinda changes things, you know."
"Perspective, perhaps?"
"Yeah. I can't ever hope to pick her up as high as he can. I can only hope that she stays up there, and enjoy the ride."
"No matter how long or short it may be." Cadance whispered to herself.
"Say what?"
"I'll love you for showing me things that I couldn't see." She lied to cover her tracks.
Cadance may have fooled Shining with her cover, but I did manage to catch it just fine. It seems that she's also facing the reality that she and I could possibly go separate ways one way or another. Meanwhile, Twilight was snoring the day away while she peacefully bobbed and bounced on my shoulders.
But there was something else that I was overhearing. It was a conversation amongst individuals, but it came directly ahead. And from the tone of their voices, it sounded as if there was a massive argument between Applejack and someone else. All I knew was that it didn't sound good at all. I guess she was having a debate with her brother about something.
As we all pulled over the hill, we could see Applejack exchanging heated words with an unfamiliar stallion. He had a tan coat with a black mane and what appeared to be money bags for a cutie mark. I didn't exactly know who he was, but they were sure fussing over something big. But what also grabbed my attention was a third voice.
"Ah keep tellin' it like it is! Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo an' Ah didn't go very far in the Everfree forest! We just turned back around because Sweetie Belle wouldn't stop complainin' about how dangerous it was n'all!"
This already sounds ugly.
"But Silver Spoon said that she and Diamond Tiara had followed you three into the forest. In fact, she even said that she ran into the three of you!"
"We didn't even know she was followin' us! How could we run into her if we didn't even see her!?"
"Well perhaps you didn't notice!"
"Hey now," Applejack interjected angrily. "Now mah little sister went into the forest and came back safe and sound. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom are here an' accounted for. Ah can understand that Apple Bloom did somethin' she shouldn't have, but what Ah don't appreciate is you comin' over an thinkin' y'all can just force her into a confession! Ah don't take too kindly to that!"
"I-I apologize. I didn't mean any harm or ill-intent. I'm just looking for whatever information you may have." The stallion said as he backed away. After a moment to gather himself, he continued with his plea. "Well if that's the case, then can you... I don't know, make a notification of some sort? Perhaps a message on each bag of apples, that could work. My daughters face could be on the front-"
"Now hold on a minute, ain't she yer responsibility?"
"She was under the watch of her butler! He's the one responsible in this situation!"
I tapped Twilight on the side of the leg, asking her to wake up for a bit before I placed her back on the ground. Groggily, she yawned and stretched. "Nnnngh.... wha-what's going on?"
"I gotta take care of some business. Sit here and wait, okay?"
As I walked towards the group of ponies, Applejack continued to argue with the stallion. "Ah can do ya this much: Ah'll make an announcement to mah friends, we'll try to look into it, we'll do what we can to get her back. You can do your part an' alert the authorities an' gatherin' all yer sources. Ah'm even sure we'll probably find her and have her back by either late tonight or sometime tomorrow-"
"But I can't! I have to take a train to Seaddle in an hour for a corporate meeting tomorrow with my smaller branch heads. If I miss it, then the future of my company could be in ruins! Doh... could I possibly trust you-"
...He just... yeah... He said it. "Excuse me, but can I interject for a bit?"
Both Applejack and the stallion turned to see me. The tan pony galloped over to me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, sir captain! Thank Celestia you're here. Listen, my little-"
"Pause for a second." I said while holding his muzzle shut with my hand, taking a page from Pinkie and Applejack's book. "Now when I let go, I want you to tell me your name, then I want you to explain to me what's going on here. Got it?"
He nodded his head quickly. After I let go of his muzzle, he proceeded to give me his name and an outline of the situation.
"I'm Filthy Rich, founder and CEO of Barnyard Bargains." He said extending his hoof for me to shake, which I declined for personal reasons. "Well pleasantries aside, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon wanted to follow Apple Bloom and her friends into the Everfree forest-"
I looked back to the young filly with a serious look. "Even though I placed out a travel advisory over three days ago in regarding to that forest, you went?"
"Um... y-yessir." Apple Bloom answered with a remorseful tone. "A-Ah thought we could go visit Zecora and see about gettin' our cutie marks in crafting shaman masks."
I looked to Applejack and gave her a quick warning. "I'm glad she's safe, but the next time this happens, I'm gonna have to hold you responsible, okay? Their clubhouse is on your grounds and that would make you the primary individual I'd have to question. Please be careful next time."
"Ah understand." The orange mare answered just before giving her younger sister an unforgiving look, causing the young filly to back up onto her haunches. I then turned my attention back to the stallion.
"Now back to you. Continue with the story."
"Yes, well... I had to handle a meeting with Mayor Mare and a few of my other associates today in Town Hall, so I left my daughter in the care of her butler. But when I had gotten out, suddenly Silver Spoon's parents come to notify me that Diamond Tiara and her butler had went missing."
"Where is the butler?"
"That's just it, I don't know where he is or Diamond Tiara for that matter. The last time Silver Spoon saw them was when Diamond had sprained her foreleg in the forest. She had told Silver to keep running for the town. That was the last time they were seen."
"So when was this 'supposed contact' made between Diamond Tiara and the group of girls she was following?"
"From what Silver had told me, it was after she fell off a ledge and sprained her ankle. The path was just below them. While peering over, she slipped on something and fell down."
"Well, now that ya mention it, we heard somethin rustle in the bushes ahead, so we kinda ran back into town cus we were a bit scared n'all. We thought we were gonna run into a manticore or somethin." Apple Bloom quietly interjected.
That explains the instance of 'contact'. "Did anything else occur?"
"Well, Silver said that there was a noise coming from deep within the forest while Diamond told her to run away." Filthy answered.
That already sounds like bad news. "Did Silver Spoon see what it was that was coming after them?"
"No, she just kept running. But she did say that a local zebra came around and guided her back into town. She also said that she would go inside the forest again and search for Diamond Tiara on her own."
That must've been Zecora. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for her too. "When did all of this occur?" I asked.
"Just after the rain cleared up."
Okay, so this pretty much just happened. "You said that this was going towards Zecora's place, right?" I asked Apple Bloom.
"Pretty much."
"That's also along the way to the Castle of the Two Sisters." Twilight said as she approached with the other royals and an undisguised Cliff and Rickey.
Filthy became distracted by the unusual crowd and bowed before the group. "My lordships! I'm so terribly sorry that you would have to catch us as such a moment."
Celestia seemed unnerved by the stallion bending down to kiss the bottom of her golden slippers while Luna looked on with what appeared to be disdain. Apple Bloom was also distracted, but for another reason. "A-a-a... Applejack! D-d... t... THERE ARE MORE HUMANS!"
Applejack turned around to see the two men wave back. "Rickey, Cliff? What in tarnation are y'all doin' on mah farm?"
"Wait, y'all me-" Apple Bloom didn't get a chance to finish as her older sister answered her.
"Yes, we met yesterday! But that still doesn't explain how y'all got on mah farm without me givin' ya a tour of the orchard first. Feels a might-bit embarrassin'."
"We were with Nondis and Twilight on the way in. You might've missed us coming by, we were on the cart." Rickey answered.
"Guys, focus." I stated as I turned my attention to Filthy once more. "Okay, so this Diamond Tiara, what does she look like?"
Applejack took out a piece of paper with the filly's portrait on it. "Here's how she looks if ya need a reference."
After looking at the pony in the picture, my mind was brought back to an event that took place several months back. I had seen this little filly before, more specifically, I had told her off at one given time. She kept bullying Sweetie Belle after she had finished singing. Oh I remember her, too well. "So what is this young lady to you?"
"She's my sweet little daughter."
I balled up the paper and threw it back at him, finally letting my anger get the better of me. "EXCUSE ME!? She's your FUCKING DAUGHTER!?"
"Nondis-" Applejack scolded.
"Correct me later, please. I need to tear into his ass real quick." I said while stepping towards the tan stallion. "So let me recall something that you had said just a moment ago. You wouldn't take the time to look for this girl because you have to take a train to some other place, for a business meeting?"
"I have to! Butlers aren't exactly cheap, you know! And I have to do whatever I can to keep saving up for my daughter's schooling, as well as her toys for the next month, her allowance, her trips to other cities and-"
"Look, I can understand you wanting to give the world to your daughter, but how the hell do you intend to do so when that very same daughter goes missing? That is YOUR FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY and NO ONE ELSE'S!!!"
"I'm sorry. That's why I left her in the care of her butler!"
"Okay then, riddle me this. What time was your business meeting and about what time did you get out?" I asked.
"I got out of it when it was still raining. But in between that and Silver Spoon's parents telling me what had happened, I had... um... went for a daily outing at the spa with a client." He answered nervously.
"The spa, in the rain?" I gritted my teeth as I flexed my fingers, balling them up into a fist. "So you didn't tell your butler about the travel advisory going around in regards to Everfree Forest? I SENT THAT SHIT OUT THREE DAYS AGO!"
At this point, he began to sweat bullets. "Well, my butler Randolph usually grabs my papers in the morning and send them my way. I read something about a travel advisory, but I paid it no mind. I never thought that it was that important-"
You dense motherfucker. "Yet you can spend your time in the spa with 'clients'... When I find this girl and bring her back, you're going to hug her, I'm going to punch you in the face, and you're going to spend the rest of the day with her, capisce?"
"But I-"
"My job is to make sure that every one of you are safe. It's bad enough we already have changelings at the castle ruins over there. You do not need to be feeding them your butler OR YOUR OWN GODDAMN DAUGHTER!"
"Sensitive information, Nondis." Twilight whispered to me out the side of her muzzle.
"He has a right to know. If something happens to his daughter, he'll know upfront what's gonna happen." I answered back while turning my attention to the stallion. "So in short, your daughter will be drained dry by the crew that gets her, whisked away to the changeling army, milked damn-near to death, sent to the main hive, and milked again for every last ounce of her life force. Let me be blunt: SHE. WILL. DIE. And the butler's an added bonus."
As I explained everything to him, I could see the color leaving his face. Applejack only clenched her younger sister in response to what was said. Cliff and Rickey stood silent, unsure of what to say or do.
I quietly whispered into his ear as a means to send my point across home plate. "So yeah, that train ride seems mighty important right now, doesn't it? Money can't buy your daughter's life back, but hey I'm sure it can buy you all the 'clients' you want. Does make a lot of sense when you think about it. I mean, what's the loss of one life that just so happens to be of your own blood? Or better yet, what do you buy when the one thing you buy for no longer exists? It's kinda like buying that golden brush for your daughter that just so happens to be resting in an open casket in front of you... and her grieving mother."
He grabbed my arm and pleaded on his hind legs. His voice trembled as he spoke. "I-I'll cancel the train, the trip, I don't care! JUST GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER! Please, I'll do anything. I'll give you whatever you want."
"I want you and I to have a long talk when I get back. Success or failure, we will have a chat."
While I stormed off, I made my way back into the wagon. Twilight gave chase, whispering to me with concern. "Don't you think you were a little too harsh? And that's just putting it lightly."
"True, I was a bit brutal back there. But in my world, we call it 'scaring them straight'. Give them a reality check and provide them with the worst-case scenario. They'll change their minds eventually, whether the guilt and pressure eats away at them within the hour or in a few minutes. It'll sink in, and they will change for the better."
"Filthy has always cared for Diamond Tiara. He's just been so busy with everything that he-"
"Hires a butler to stand in his place? I can understand him wanting to spoil his daughter with riches, but that's not the way to go about it. You don't just place your responsibilities on someone else because you're too busy making money. You learn how to balance the two, especially if you own your own company. Now where is that damn gun?"
Rickey and Cliff walked up beside me as I began to open the blue bin to pull back out the M16. While I started to rummage through everything, Cliff watched me with skepticism. "I thought this was supposed to be top-secret." Cliff noted.
"There are times where your own principles have to take a back seat to the situation at hand. I say a lot of shit, and if the time calls for it, then I will go against what I'll personally believe if it ensures the safety of each and every citizen of this world. And considering my position, I'd have to do a lot of things I wouldn't like doing. It comes with the job."
"So what? You're just gonna go in and start shooting up the place?" Rickey asked.
"They fight with spears, fangs, and magic. I'm armed with shit that could decimate a small army. So yes I'm going in."
While I continued to sift through the bin, I heard Cadance and Shining come up from behind. "Well?" She began.
"Well, what?" Shining asked.
"Say something. You know that going alone is too dangerous, even for him."
"Cadie, he's proven that he has the weapons to outmatch whatever's thrown at him. Have a little bit of trust, will you?"
"That ain't everything though." Rickey said to Shining as he walked up to me. "Yo D, let's go through all this shit when we get back to the castle."
"Why then?" I asked while holding on to the rediscovered M16.
"Because those pink bins has a lot more of what you could use. 'Stuff that goes pop' remember?" He answered with a devious smirk.
I paused for a moment and slowly placed the rifle back into the bin. "Explosives? You packed explosives?"
"Flash grenades, stuns, smokes, nines, you name it, it's in there. I'm saying load up before you start going Rambo against a bunch of these 'changeling' guys."
I placed the lid back on the container and got off the back of the wagon. As I faced Rickey I couldn't help but to feel appreciative for everything he's done. I started to smile, and then I began to chuckle. After a few seconds, I began to laugh.
I fucking love this guy. "A semester's tuition to pay for the defense of an entire nation... worth every goddamn cent."